Influence of particle non-dilute effects on its dispersion in particle-laden blast wave systems

Abstract

Even though the interaction of blast waves with dense particle distributions is ubiquitous in nature and in industry, the underlying physics of the multiphase system evolution is not clearly understood. A canonical multiphase system composed of an embedded monodisperse distribution of spherical particles in a spherical, high-energy gaseous charge is studied numerically using an Eulerian–Lagrangian approach to elucidate the role of non-dilute particle effects on the dynamics of the two-phase flow system. The direct simulation Monte Carlo method is modified to model inelastic particle–particle collisions and to model the gaseous flow inter-leaving through complex structures of monodisperse dense distributions of spherical particles to obtain parameters that are fit to semi-empirical particle cloud drag laws that account for aerodynamic interactions. The study reveals that inter-particle collisions decrease the total particle kinetic energy at early stages of the particle-laden blast wave system evolution, but near-particle interaction increases the particle kinetic energy at this stage. In contrast, at later stages of evolution, collisions tend to retain more kinetic energy, while the aerodynamic interactions tend to dissipate particle kinetic energy.